'We Don't Just Baby-Sit.' Classrooms for Child Care With the Future in Mind

Kyle Whittle, 3, has waved goodbye to his mother and yelled, ''I love you, Mommy!'' and then hidden behind his cubby in the classroom and jumped out at his friend, Kevin Johansmeyer, also 3, and said, ''Boo!'' Now he is dying an Easter egg in a cup.

''We'll leave it in there for this much minutes,'' he says with exuberance, holding up both hands with 10 widespread fingers.

''How many minutes is that?'' asks Marybeth Moroney, 17, who is monitoring his egg-dying skills.

''Sixty!'' says Kyle.

''No-o-o,'' says Ms. Moroney, laughing. And then she helps Kyle to count to 10 on his fingers.

So went another day in the child-development class at Indian Hills High School in this Bergen County community, where students like Ms. Maroney get to work with and observe pre-schoolers as part of their studies in family and consumer science, (formerly home economics) on their way to becoming schoolteachers, child-care workers, and, of course, parents.

The course, which began here last September as a two-year pilot program, involves, in effect, teen-age students running a free day-care center three days a week for 13 children, ages 3 to 5. Although it is new in Indian Hills, it is patterned after similar courses that have been offered around New Jersey and other states for more than 20 years. The original courses were designed to teach young people how to care for children in their own families at home, but as more women have entered the workforce the course broadened to include day care as an occupation.

''We just don't baby-sit them,'' said Elaine Arendas, a veteran teacher who developed the Indian Hills course. ''All the activities, which the students in the class plan, have an educational purpose. To help with the growth and development of the children in our care -- physically, intellectually, emotionally and socially.''

There were 11 pre-schoolers this day in a classroom at Indian Hills that the students have helped to design and transform into one with a pre-school atmosphere, with little tables and chairs, toys, puzzles, books and colorful decorations, like the Easter bunny decals on the windows.

The children attend from 9:15 A.M. to 10:45 A.M. here every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, said Ms. Arendas, taking part in activites like arts and crafts, music and dance, story telling and science demonstrations: how objects float or sink.

Thirty-four teen-agers like Miss Moroney, who plans to study elementary education at Rutgers University, are enrolled in the course, which is split into two 45-minute classes. Eighteen students take the first period, 16 the second. They assume roles as ''floaters'' or ''observers.''

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Floaters supervise the children's activities and prepare their snacks while observers watch how the children respond to tasks, their teen-age ''teachers'' and each other. Each observer, who is assigned a child to observe for that week, evaluates the child's progress and special needs.

On Monday, Ms. Arendas said, the students meet to plan the week's activities and on Friday review how the class went and could be improved.

Lacie Edelstein,17, a senior who plans to major in child development at Susquehanna University in Pennylvania, explains how a guitar works. She then leads them in numerous verses of ''Old McDonald Had A Farm,'' getting stuck only when no one can figure out what sound a panda bear makes.

Kelly Torell, 17, leads the children in a game of matching paper egg shapes by color and the designs on them. Besides dying Easter eggs the children also get to make baby chicks with Styrofoam, toothpicks, pipe cleaners and glue.

''It's really fun,'' says Vicky Kenney, 17, who plans to become a bilingual counsellor in English and Spanish. ''At first you think it's just baby sitting. But it's not because you have to really think about what activities to do that are interesting and that they'll learn from. You also have to learn how to deal with different behaviors.''

''I like the interaction with the kids,'' says Kathleen Pope, a 17-year old junior who hopes to be a kindergarten teacher.

The parents also appear to be pleased with the program. One of them, Janet Watkins, says of her 3-year old son, William, ''He enjoys it. It's his first experience with school and he's learned a lot. To socialize and make friends. Everytime he comes home, he shows me something new he's learned.''